Page:Trees Kilmer.djvu/77

TREES AND OTHER POEMS

DAVE LILLY (continued) But I always liked Dave Lilly, he was pleasant as you could wish;

He was shiftless and good-for-nothing, but he certainly could fish.

The other night I was walking up the hill from Williamstown

And I came to the brook I mentioned, and I stopped on the bridge and sat down.

I looked at the blackened water with its little flecks of white

And I heard it ripple and whisper in the still of the Summer night.

And after I'd been there a minute it seemed to me I could feel

The presence of someone near me, and I heard the hum of a reel.

And the water was churned and broken, and something was brought to land

By a twist and flirt of a shadowy rod in a deft and shadowy hand.

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